Page:Sacred Books of the East - Volume 6.djvu/236

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110
THE QUR'AN
V, 91-96

what ye make deliberate oaths about; and the expiation thereof is to feed ten poor men with the middling food ye feed your families withal, or to clothe them, or to free a neck[1]; but he who has not the means, then let him fast three days. That is the expiation of your oaths, when ye have sworn to keep your oaths; thus does God explain to you His signs,—haply ye may be grateful.

O ye who believe! verily, wine, and el maisar[2], and statues[3], and divining (arrows) are only an abomination of Satan’s work; avoid them then that haply ye may prosper. Satan only desires to place enmity and hatred between you by wine and maisar, and to turn you from the remembrance of God and from prayer; but will ye not desist, and obey God, and obey the apostles, and beware, for if ye turn back then know that our Apostle has only his message to preach ?

There is no crime in those who believe and do right, for having tasted food, when they fear God, and believe, and do what is right, and then fear Him, and believe, and then fear, and do good, for God loves those who do good.

[95] O ye who believe! God will try you with something of the game that your hands and your lances take, that God may know who fears Him in secret; and whoso transgresses after that, for him is grievous woe.

O ye who believe! kill not game while ye are on

  1. I.e. from the yoke of captivity.
  2. See note 4, p. 32.
  3. This has been thought by strict Musselmans to exclude the game of chess. Sunnis, however, play the game with plain pieces like drafts, though Persians and Indians are not so scrupulous.